SunTrust unfaithful employee may have stolen data on 1.5 Million customers

SunTrust Banks Inc announced it discovered that a former employee may have attempted to download information on nearly 1.5 million clients and share it a criminal organization.

A former employee at the SunTrust Bank may have stolen data on 1.5 million clients, including names, addresses, phone numbers, and account balances.

“The company became aware of potential theft by a former employee of information from some of its contact lists. Although the investigation is ongoing, SunTrust is proactively notifying approximately 1.5 million clients that certain information, such as name, address, phone number and certain account balances may have been exposed.” reads the press release published by the bank.

“The contact lists did not include personally identifying information, such as social security number, account number, PIN, User ID, password, or driver’s license information. SunTrust is also working with outside experts and coordinating with law enforcement.”

The bank said it believes the information doesn’t include personally identifiable information, such as social security numbers, account numbers, pins, user IDs, passwords or driver’s license numbers.

SunTrust is notifying approximately 1.5 million clients that certain information may have been exposed.

According to the Reuters agency, the unfaithful employee tried to download the client data a few weeks ago in an attempt to sell it to a criminal.

“Chief Executive Officer William Rogers brought the incident to light on a post-earnings call with analysts on Friday. He said the attempt to download client information was made six to eight weeks ago.” reported the Reuters.

SunTrust CEO William Rogers said that there was no indication of fraudulent activity using the exposed information, likely the data had not been sent outside the bank.

The SunTrust is now offering free identity protection services to all of its clients.

“SunTrust Banks, Inc. (NYSE: STI) is now offering Identity Protection for all current and new consumer clients at no cost on an ongoing basis. Experian IDnotify™ will be provided to those who sign up for the service.” continues the press release.

“The IDnotify product by Experian is being offered in addition to existing SunTrust security protocols: ongoing monitoring of accounts, FICO score program, alerts, tools and zero liability fraud protection.”

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Pierluigi Paganini

(Security Affairs – Bata Breach, cybercrime)

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Pierluigi Paganini

Pierluigi Paganini is member of the ENISA (European Union Agency for Network and Information Security) Threat Landscape Stakeholder Group and Cyber G7 Group, he is also a Security Evangelist, Security Analyst and Freelance Writer. Editor-in-Chief at "Cyber Defense Magazine", Pierluigi is a cyber security expert with over 20 years experience in the field, he is Certified Ethical Hacker at EC Council in London. The passion for writing and a strong belief that security is founded on sharing and awareness led Pierluigi to find the security blog "Security Affairs" recently named a Top National Security Resource for US. Pierluigi is a member of the "The Hacker News" team and he is a writer for some major publications in the field such as Cyber War Zone, ICTTF, Infosec Island, Infosec Institute, The Hacker News Magazine and for many other Security magazines. Author of the Books "The Deep Dark Web" and “Digital Virtual Currency and Bitcoin”.